1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to the field of bas-relief art, and to methods and processes for preparing and using such art.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Bas-relief art has been previously prepared by carving directly into a surface or by pouring into a suitable mold.
The carving or sculpturing technique goes back to ancient times, and its exact origin would be difficult to trace, but it has been used with both hard and soft surface materials and is well known in the decorative arts.
Molding a bas-relief is a more recent technique, which can be examined with reference to prior art U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,322,609 to Vida; 3,444,032 to Kreier; 3,663,349 to Venturino; 3,269,886 to Dellanbaugh, and 3,712,825 to Yocum.
In the above patent to Vida, a separate mold unit is required into which a building facing material of a mixture of thermosetting resin, silica sand, crystalline alumina, or other translucent grains is deposited. His finished product is flexible at the grout lines only, and all of his rigid members are substantially the same height. The process steps employed by Vida number at least fourteen (compared to applicant's eight) and are intricate and expensive to accomplish his result, whereas applicant's process, by comparison is extremely simple, economical, and expedient to accomplish the applicant's result.
The patent to Kreier discloses a method and resulting article using a slurry of metal powder and binder deposited in a flexible mold and then flame curing the slurry to provide a porous metallic pattern on a rigid multi-layer panel. In contradistinction, in one embodiment, the applicant's non-metallic product is formed on a very flexible substrate for the purpose of shaping the substrate to an architectural column or similar support.
The patent to Venturino discloses a wall panel having a central layer of fabric with veneer wood or imitation leather glued to one side, and provided on the other side with plastic secured thereto by hot-pressing to impart a geometric embossed form to the panel. Applicant's architectural art section, in contrast, requires no expensive hot-press machines or dies, and uses economical stencils that may be quickly and manually changed to incorporate appropriate new designs, if desired.
The patent to Dellenbaugh discloses a masonry item and a method primarily intended to produce a small decorated tile by casting wet cementious material into a mold lined with a then smooth surfaced water swellable film. The wet material transfers water to the film which expands upwardly into the cementious material in the form of random wrinkles. When the cementious material has set and is removed from the mold, it will show on its face the identical design of the wrinkles. While this is an ingenious approach to creating a novel random design on relatively small sections of tile, it differs markedly from the applicant's process and resulting product of extremely large flexible material and deliberate designs of creative architectural art that may be reproduced indefinitely.
The patent to Yocum discloses a simulated masonary wall panel that is formed by first coating the panel with a base coat to resemble mortar and then spraying a finish coat through a mask to protect the simulated mortar joints. When the mask is removed, the finish coat resembles brick or other masonary stone. The applicant's process specifically avoids using a rigid or brittle (when set) medium and deliberately avoids simulating masonary stone so that an attractive, artistic presentation is obtained.